"I was like, 'So I'm out. This is terrible. It's so scary. This is the worst,'" Krasinski told "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert. "Waiting tables: not as fun as they say."

John Krasinski’s career has continued to grow since his career-making turn as Jim Halpert in “The Office.” The Newton native scored a hit earlier this year as director, co-screenwriter, and star of “A Quiet Place,” and he recently stepped into the iconic role of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in a new, big-budget Amazon series.

However, Krasinski revealed on Tuesday’s episode of “The Late Show” that he came close to quitting acting for good and moving home to Massachusetts before he was cast in that first big part in “The Office.”

Krasinski told host Stephen Colbert that he initially headed to Brown University with the goal of becoming a teacher and eventually studied theater. He said his parents supported his switch in careers, but that his mother made him promise that if he hadn’t gotten “a nibble or a bite” as an actor in three years, he had to make the decision to give up his acting aspirations himself because, she told him, “as your mother, you can’t ask me to tell you to give up on your dreams.”

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As he approached the deadline, Krasinski was ready to call it quits.

“Cut to two-and-a-half years later. I was like, ‘So I’m out. This is terrible. It’s so scary. This is the worst,'” Krasinski told Colbert. “Waiting tables: not as fun as they say.”

But Krasinki said his mother told him to at least wait until the end of the year before moving home. As it turns out, mom knew best in this case.

“I was telling her to come get me [in New York],” Krasinski said. “And three weeks later, I got ‘The Office.'”

“So, you know, I give her a lot of love and 10 percent,” Krasinski continued, jokingly. “She deserves it.”